


A Ghost's Heartbeat

by annabaechase (phanqueray)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, angstyyy, based on AnoHana the anime, first pbeth fic in a while soz, lolz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 15:24:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7227904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phanqueray/pseuds/annabaechase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annabeth had moved on from the death of her childhood friend so she isn't sure why there's an older version of him when she woke up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Ghost's Heartbeat

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the anime AnoHana!! I haven't written PJO in a while so I hope this isn't too OOC

Annabeth isn’t sure what’s happening or why this is happening to her but somehow her best friend ever since she was a child, who died in surgery, is beside her when she woke up.

_ You’re dreaming! You’re dreaming! _

Annabeth jumps out of bed and grabs the blanket in shock and fear. She screams while she’s at it.

Percy, or whoever this guy is, rubs his sleepy eyes and yawns Annabeth’s name. He frowns. “What’s wrong?”

This guy sounds like Percy too. He has the same green eyes and ruffled hair. The only difference is that he looks older and taller. He’s wearing a tank top and shorts. His skin is tan and he’s leaner. Annabeth feels her cheeks grow hot and hides it in her hand.

“You’re not real.” Annabeth mutters.

“Huh?” Percy throws his legs to the edge of the bed. “I didn’t hear you.”

“You’re dead! You’re not real! I’m dreaming, right? Is this some coping mechanism or something?” Annabeth slaps herself to make sure she’s real. She is and she’s frustrated.

She expects the silence she created to prolong but Percy laughs.

“I know that.”

The sun is just coming out. Annabeth’s windows are flooded with light from outside. Her room is brightly lit and orange. She gasps.

Percy doesn’t have a shadow.

Annabeth grabs the nearest thing she can see, which is a pillow, and throws it at Percy. He catches it, even if he isn’t real.

She turns her back away from him, slapping her cheeks and repeatedly saying, “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”

Percy is behind her. He touches her shoulder gently and it feels like a breeze. Annabeth shrieks and accidentally hits her bedroom door.

“Annabeth? Is everything okay there?” Her dad shouts from their kitchen. 

“Uh, yes don’t worry!” She answers, turning around. Percy is looking at her, expressionless. She gulps.

“Are you sure? You’re acting as if something’s bothering you,” Percy says.

“ _ You’re _ bothering me,” Annabeth whispers, loud enough for Percy to hear. He steps back a little before Annabeth pushes him. Her fingers doesn’t pass through him like she thought, she pushes him for real, almost as if he exists.

_ Christ. _

Percy puts his hands on his waists and grins. “Now, why would you do that to your Seaweed Brain?”

Annabeth’s eyes widened as her hand tries to find the doorknob on it’s own. Seaweed Brain, she hasn’t heard that name ever since three years ago. Is this really Percy or is this just a hallucination? 

She opens the door and goes outside as quick as she could. She slams her room shut and sighs. 

Was that Percy’s ghost?

 

**

 

Annabeth hated hospitals. She hated the white walls and flickering lights. She hated that she saw Percy in that horrible place, an IV stuck to his wrist. She hated that Percy was stuck in a room, his face paler than before.

When she and her dad visited Percy in the hospital for the first time, Percy assured both of them that they won’t be seeing him as an in patient that much. He assured Annabeth that he’d be okay, he just fainted after tiring himself so much. He was such a liar.

A month or so after Percy basically moved into the hospital,  Annabeth brought books so he wouldn’t get bored when she left. He groaned as a response.

“What? Don’t you get bored when you’re alone?”

“Yeah,” Percy says, holding up one book from the pile. “But you do realize I have dyslexia, right?”

Oh yeah, Annabeth kinda forgot that.

Percy giggles. “For a wise girl, that wasn’t very wise.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”

Percy continued laughing.

 

**

 

“Annabeth, I’m going to work!” Her dad waves from the door before leaving. Annabeth keeps her fake smile until he is out of sight. She sprints to her room. 

She, with caution, opens her bedroom door slowly until it’s fully opened. Everything seems the same, no Percy, nothing moved. Everything seems okay.

“What are you looking for?” A voice asks behind her. 

Instinctively, her left leg moves for a back kick. It would’ve hit Percy on the stomach if he didn’t catch it.

“I was looking for you.” Annabeth shakes her leg off Percy’s grasp. He let out a laugh.

“Would you look at that! You found me!”

“That doesn’t make me happy, Jackson.”

Percy frowns, his eyes following Annabeth as she goes to the lounge and turns on the TV.

He joins her in watching whatever she watched. Annabeth doesn’t speak or even look at Percy. She doesn’t want to think he’s real. She doesn’t want to get too invested on this imaginary Percy her brain decided to make. She wants him to disappear so people won’t think she’s insane or living in the past.

She’s moved on, so why is he here? 

“What’s that called?” Percy says, his eyes on the TV. He thinks about it for a while. Annabeth smiles because of his expression. His eyebrows are furrowed, his lips pressed to a thin line. His fingers are tapping his knee.

“You’ll get a headache when you think too much,” she jokes.

Percy does his fake glare that always makes Annabeth laugh. His sea green eyes are covered with a storm but she can always see through his clouds and see the slightest bit of sunshine. 

He snaps his fingers, it makes Annabeth jump. “Rest in peace!”

Annabeth tilts her head to show her confusion. 

“I think I need to rest in peace if you want me to disappear.”

“Well,” she begins, “how do you rest in peace?”

“I thought you were the wise girl here?”

She sighs. “Shut up, Percy. You’re the dead guy.”

 

**

 

“You’ll be okay, right?” Annabeth hid obvious tears only to wipe them furiously. “You’ll get better!”

Percy was looking out the window. It was a cloudy day of winter. Snow fell that day and Annabeth forgot to wear her gloves. Percy pointed it out when she came in. He said he was worried she’d freeze her hands off. Annabeth responded with a “Seaweed Brain,” and a laugh.

Percy grabbed Annabeth’s hand and placed it on the left side of his chest. His heart was beating louder than before. He smiled. “I’ll be fine.”

“Dumbass,” Annabeth sniffed, “your heart is here.” She places her hand in the middle of his chest. 

“As long as you feel it,” Percy said, his smile brighter and more promising than it really was. “It means I’m alive. As long as I’m alive, and you’re alive, I’ll try to kick my illness out of my body. It’s unwelcome.”

Annabeth smiled, wiping the rest of her tears. “Moron.”

“What else is in your vocabulary?”

“Whatever.”

Percy gripped Annabeth’s fingers. “I’m having surgery tomorrow. I’ll fight with all I can.”

“You better.”

Percy laughed and Annabeth felt close to the sea. His laugh always swept her to different places, to pools and oceans, to the middle of Manhattan and anywhere but there, in the hospital room where she last saw him. 

Percy couldn’t truly fight the illness with will and feelings, she knew that. But a part of her wanted it to be true. If Percy could fight his disease, he would win, because he’s strong, because he’s Percy. He’s her Percy.

She left with a goodbye.

“Bye, Wise Girl!” Percy waved.

“Also--” Annabeth didn’t finish her sentence.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” she smiled. “I’ll tell you tomorrow! Bye-bye!”

 

*

 

It was the middle of the afternoon, the day of Percy’s surgery. Annabeth was reading a book before her dad burst in her room, his face worried and pale. Her dad told her anyway.

“He didn’t make it.”

Annabeth didn’t cry. She didn’t even say a thing. She just dropped her book and stared at her hand while her dad left her alone in her room.

It stopped snowing but the day wasn’t bright. The city wasn’t loud either. The clouds were partially parted. The people didn’t shout as much. Pets in the building weren’t making much noise. The world was stuck in time.

A few moments, Annabeth let out a scream.

She was so sure Percy would survive. He gave his all anyway. He should’ve survive such a weak illness. He should’ve lived with that strong heart, with that laugh, with those eyes.

He left her with his broken promises and his very last words to her. He left her with things she can’t forget. He left her with only memories. He left her with a half hearted goodbye, as if he knew he would live through the surgery. He left her with a beating heart that would never beat again. He left her. He left her and he won’t come back.

 

**

 

It’s two weeks before school and two after Percy appeared beside her. Annabeth still doesn’t completely understand why he’s here and why she’s the only one who can see him. Asking him doesn’t help that much, since he’s clueless as well.

She was skeptical until Percy disappeared and came back, telling her he met with his mom. Annabeth hadn’t seen Sally in a while, for a few years actually, so Percy telling her that she has a boyfriend (and proved it) made her believe in him, at least in the back of her head.

She’s seated in front of her desk, trying to plan out a study schedule, when her phone dings in front of her.

“Who’s that?” Percy asks from the couch. 

“Oh,” she checks her phone. “It’s just Piper.”

_ [2:35 pm] Piper McLean: I’m coming over, Mom is telling me to get a boyfriend again. _

_ [2:35 pm] Annabeth Chase: Okay. _

Percy smiles. “Is she your friend?”

“Oh yeah, best, actually.”

“So you’ve replaced me, huh?”

Annabeth turns to him, cheeks flushed red and eyes attempting not to look at him. “Ah, I didn’t--”

“I’m glad.”

“Huh?”

Percy sighs. “You’ve moved on.”

“It’s been four years,” she answers.

“I’m glad time is moving for you. You’re not in the past, you’ve found new friends. I’m glad that you’ve,” he pauses, “forgotten about me at least a little.”

Percy was always selfless. He always cared about everyone else even if he was in a crisis. He’s someone who’d solve someone else’s problems before his own. He’d save a family from a burning house even if he couldn’t walk. He’d protect his friends and family even if it costed him his life. Turns out the Percy Annabeth is seeing isn’t such a fake. 

Annabeth wants to protest and say that no, even if I start a brand new life, I will never hit that reset button. It’s impossible to forget a person who made a part of her life a wonderful ride.

The doorbell rings.

 

~

 

Once Piper arrived, Percy slips out of their way. He’s dead and he knows very well that he shouldn’t mingle with the living. He sighs, back against Annabeth’s bathroom wall. 

He doesn’t know how he died and why he’s here. He doesn’t know that much at all. Just that he’s dead and he has to ‘rest in peace’ if he wants to reincarnate. The thing is, Percy doesn’t know how to have a peaceful eternal slumber. Maybe he needs to hear something that was unheard or get something he wanted.  

He goes out of the bathroom and out the apartment. Percy slips out Annabeth’s apartment door and goes to visit her upstairs neighbor, his mom. 

The door is unlocked, as always. Even before Percy was born, his mom always left her door unlocked for reasons he’s forgot. Maybe that’s the thing that he needs to know to rest. Maybe he needs to know why his mom doesn’t mind being at least a bit secured. 

Percy shakes his head. How petty would he be if his spirit came back for that. Was he really that concerned of everyone else?

His mom, cooking in the kitchen, doesn’t notice his entrance. The smell of cookies and a feeling of warmth surrounds the air, making Percy a little bit homesick. 

He sits on the counter across her as her apron flies when she paces across their kitchen, getting ingredients and mixing them. He doesn’t say much, mostly because she can’t hear or see him, but also because watching her cook reminded him of when he was as alive as he’d ever been. 

From his mom’s room, a voice, Paul Blofis, calls out, “What time are we leaving?”

Her mother smiles a bit. “After I bake!”

Percy relaxes and rests on his arms. His mother is unbelievable busy when she bakes, that’s one of the things he remembers from his life. He usually sat behind the counter, his legs barely reaching the floor, watching his mom as she whips out things to make his favorite snack. 

She usually did it after he was done playing with Annabeth. She’d bake enough for both of them then receive a tackle from Percy afterwards. He’d cherish the smell of her baking, it was his favorite scent. That and the scent of his mother’s shirt as he buried his face on her chest.

She smiled and she’s smiling right now, even if Percy’s gone. At least she’s smiling, like she always did, with her eyes.

“Who are you baking for?” Percy asks, not waiting to be answered. “Where are you even going?”

He spots a little bottle of food coloring next to her mixing bowl and his heart skips a beat. It is blue food coloring.

It’s August 18. It’s his birthday.

 

*

 

Percy can hear a heartbeat. It sounds like the drops of rain on the window, like the drum from his favorite song, it’s soft and gentle and makes Percy misses his own. 

Sitting at the back of Paul’s car, with Sally in front of him, Percy listens to the new songs on the radio. He doesn’t hate them but they aren’t as interesting as he thought they’d be. He resides to watching the buildings out the car window. He doesn’t think much, just that Annabeth’s favorite restaurant is gone. It isn’t after few minutes that they stop at the cemetery.

Sally goes out first, then Paul. Percy slips out of Paul’s slowly closing door so they won’t be freaked out that there’s a ghost inside their car. Percy’s grave is under a shade of a tree. 

It seems ordinary, even after Percy’s mom sets her basket of cookies on top of it instead of flowers. He sits beside the the tomb, looking at the text carved on the stone.

**PERCY JACKSON**

**AUGUST 18 1993 - AUGUST 18 2007**

His mom isn’t smiling anymore, not even a hint of happiness is left on her face. Percy is shocked when his mother’s sobs are audible. He stands up.

“If you’re alive,” his mother quietly says, “you’d be seventeen.”

“I’m sorry.” Percy is walking towards her.

“You’d be in twelfth grade and you’d come home everyday.”

Percy wraps his arms around her. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m dead. I’m sorry for not being able to be with you. I’m sorry you’re here, in the cemetery, because of me.”

She can’t hear or see him but he still apologizes. He apologizes that he can’t hug her in real life, in his physical form. He’s sorry for making her cry.  

“I’m sorry.”

“Percy,” his mom whispers, tears falling down her face. “If you’re even here, I love you.”

Percy gasps when his mom’s arms are on his back, saying if he can hug her right now they’d be like that. His cheeks are wet with tears and his mouth is trying not to shout. “I love you too.”

 

~

 

“How can a ghost rest in peace?”

Annabeth searches the unusual group of words. She scrolls through the results before finding a page on why ghost linger on Earth. 

‘Someone might be holding them back or they have ‘unfinished’ business to attend to (i.e. having ungranted wishes/tasks).’

 

**

 

“But school is boring!” Percy groans from the couch.

Annabeth rolls her eyes. “Yeah but I benefit from it, don’t I?”

Percy sighs.

“You can have the house to yourself.” Annabeth steps out of the apartment and looks Percy at the eye when he appears in front of her.

“But--”

“Don’t follow me!” Annabeth slams the door.

 

*

 

“Annababe!” Reyna puts her arm around Annabeth’s shoulders with a smile.

“Oh, hey!” Annabeth smiles then goes back to searching for her book in her backpack. 

Reyna starts talking about her summer and asking about Annabeth’s. They descend into a crowd of younger high schoolers. She tells Annabeth that she went surfing with Piper and Jason and that she went on hotels and backpacked across Europe. Reyna always has interesting and adventurous summers, Annabeth always listened to them. 

_ You had fun in your summer while I was starting to go insane and talk to my dead friend. _

Before they go into homeroom, Annabeth catches a glimpse of curly brown hair and a stubbly chin from across the hall before it disappeared into the darkness. They are greeted by Piper a bit after.

 

**

 

“Hey Perce?” Annabeth doesn’t look up from her book. She hears the blaring of her TV as Vampire Diaries plays, Percy seems to be very into it more she was.

Percy stifles a “Mm?” as a response.

“Do you think you have any wishes you want granted when you were still living?”

“Why you ask?”

Annabeth closes her book gently. “It might help you rest in peace?”

Annabeth feels Percy smile. “Ah, here’s the thing,” he says, “I don’t remember much about the last few days of my life and I may have wished or done something then and--”

Annabeth hits his arm.

“Ow! What’s that for?”

“Do you even want to rest in peace?” Annabeth mutters.

“I wanna get reincarnated.”

“Then what’s your undone task then?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well,” Annabeth looks up her ceiling, “this is harder than I’ve expected.”

 

** 

 

“Come over.” The words in Percy’s handwriting was on a folded piece of paper passed on to her. She was very confused as to why Percy was asking her right now, when Ms. Dodds was teaching. It then occurred to her that Percy hated Ms. Dodds so much that he didn’t care what he did in her class, often he did troubling things that also involved Annabeth.

“Why?” She asked.

“I have a new polaroid and I wanna take a pic of us. You know? For the memories…”

“Fine, whatever.”

 

*

 

His polaroid was a light blue one that he kept in a box. Annabeth had asked why and he just told her it made it look more vintage.

“That makes no sense.” She retorted with her arms crossed.

“Ah, whatever. Let’s just try it out.”

Annabeth inched closer to him a he held it in front of them, his arm extended. Annabeth smiled before it flashed.

“I look weird,” she commented. Her smile looked off.

“Nope, you look fine to me.”

She frowned. “Let’s take another one! You keep this one.”

“Okay, okay.” He placed the photo on his desk before he lifted the camera again.

“Scoot over,” Percy said, gesturing her to move.

“We’re super close already.”

“Oh, you take the photo!” Percy suggested, giving her the camera.

“Why?”

“Because you’re going to keep this. Do a count down too.”

Annabeth sighed. “1, 2, 3--”

When she pressed the button, she felt soft lips press against her cheek. The flash went off and after Percy kissed her, she screamed.

“You blush fast, Wise Girl.”

“Shut up!” Annabeth said, frantically covering her face as the red trails across it. She was blushing in the photo too. She shoved it in her pocket.

“Well,” Percy grinned. “I don’t blush that easily if you ask--”

Annabeth grabbed the back of his neck and pushed his face towards her. They kissed.

Here’s something to remember when Annabeth Chase kissed Percy Jackson, it was both their first. Percy’s lips were soft and somehow salty like the sea. They felt like a happy blue rather than a sad one. His eyes were open and they screamed, “Oh my god.”

Annabeth recreates the space between them then notices the rosy pink cheeks on Percy. She giggles. 

“You do blush easily.”  

“Well, at least I don’t cry that easily.”

“I don’t.”

“I’ll prove you wrong. I’ll make you cry twice.”

“Well, good luck Seaweed Brain.”

 

**

 

Annabeth is heading to school before a hand touches her shoulder and her breath shortens. It’s Percy.

“What?” She asks, not heading out the door yet. She might be late.

“I wanna come to school with you,” he answers. Annabeth looks at him weirdly.

“Weren’t you the one who told me that it was boring?” 

“Well,” Percy pouts. “Maybe I wanna get bored, who knows. Maybe this is my undone task!”

Annabeth chuckles. “To go to school?”

Enthusiastically, Percy nods and his wise girl admits her defeat.

“Fine,” she says. “Just don’t distract me in class, okay? I wanna learn.”

“And I don’t so you have no worries.” He opens the apartment door. “Shall we?”

“Sure, Seaweed Brain.”

 

*

 

Annabeth wishes she didn’t agree to Percy’s request. At English, she saw him running across the football field with the team. When she was exercising for P.E., he surprised her with a comment on how leaner she became. She returned the compliment.

Now, she’s sitting with Reyna on her right, Percy on her left and Piper and Jason in front of her in their circular table.

“How’s your sandwich, Wise Girl?”

Annabeth mumbles a slight ‘good’ only loud enough for her and Percy to hear. If someone catches her talking to nobody, it will be very hard to explain. 

“Hey Annie,” Jason says. “You’re quieter than usual, is something bothering you?” 

“Yeah,” Reyna agrees.

Annabeth shakes her head. “It’s just that I’m thinking on what I need to do for the English exam.” She says.

Annabeth excuses herself from the table and goes to the lockers with Percy trailing her. 

“What’re you doing?”

“I’m getting my English book because what I said wasn’t a lie.” She hears footsteps coming towards her so she mumbles, “Now shush for a moment.”

“Wait,” Percy says. 

Annabeth doesn’t reply.

“Is that Grover?”

Annabeth stops taking out her book and looks to her right. A guy with a wispy chin and brown curly hair is walking towards her. He has freckles all over his face too. He’s wearing a shirt that says ‘Go Vegan!’ in green.  

“Grover?” 

“Annabeth! I didn’t know you studied here.”

“Grover! Dude, how are you?” Percy asks before realizing he can’t hear him. “How is he is?”

“I didn’t know you did too! We kinda lost touch didn’t we?”

“Annabeth,” Percy wraps his arm around Grover’s shoulders. “How is he?”

“Yeah, we did.” Grover responds.

“Grover,” Percy stares. “You’ve grown, a lot. I used to be taller than you and now we’re the same height.”

Annabeth tries her best to ignore Percy and talk to Grover. He keeps talking and talking before he asks.

“How were you in my funeral?”

“Percy!” Annabeth scolds before realizing she said it too loudly. She stops short and adverted her gaze to Grover’s glare.

“Per...cy?” Grover mumbles. “Annabeth, you’ve moved on from him, right?”

Annabeth still refuses to look at him in the eye. “I did.”

“You miss him, do you?”

Percy releases his grasp on Grover’s shoulders and glanced at Annabeth, who is looking down.

“I don’t.”

“Well,” Grover is about to leave. “We should catch up. See you later.”

Annabeth stays silent.

“Anna--” Percy tries to talk but she slams her locker shut and speeds off, not caring whether or not Percy follows her.  

“I’m going insane.” She repeats a dozen times in her head. 

 

**

 

Annabeth convinced herself that Percy is a lie again and she isn’t talking to him. When Percy tries to talk to her the week after, she slams the apartment door on his face.

Percy doesn’t do much but tour her apartment for the third time. He wastes his time in her room, napping twice on her bed then checking her desk. 

When he opens the first drawer, he laughs at how many colored pens she owned. Annabeth Chase always studies and loves getting organized unless she’s in a hurry. She once said she color codes her notes, which Percy deems incredible.

“It’s really not,” she said.

“It’s very cool, trust me.”

He checks the second drawer and sees her bullet journal and planner. He lifts the to see anything under it and sees a white photo. 

It’s them when Percy pecked her cheek. She’s red in the photo, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. 

He laughs at the memory as it replays in his mind. He grabs a pen and paper and starts writing something then hides it inside his pocket after he hears her come in.

 

**

 

With many (failed) attempts of Percy trying to start a conversation with Annabeth, she finally says a word to him when he stands in front of the door.

“Move.” She deadpans, her voice expressionless like her face, her hand fisted.

“Annabeth--”

“I said move.” She doesn’t sound angry, just indifferent. Percy thinks that’s worst.

“What were your last words to me?”

“Bye-bye.” She pushes him out of the way and closes the door.

“Do you want me to disappear or not?” He mumbles as he sits on her couch.

He repeats his question a week after, while Annabeth is reading. He sees her tighten her grip on her book. 

“I--”

Tears dripped down her cheeks as the drop to the pages. She doesn’t sob, though, her eyes do all the crying. Tears. Percy wishes they weren’t created by the people he loved the very most. Percy wishes he didn’t help them create them.

Annabeth grabs Percy’s wrist and dug her fingernails into his skin. It doesn’t hurt as much as Percy thought it would be. 

“I don’t want to be alone. I want my very best friend to stay here with me. But you want to rest in peace and disappear--”

“I don’t wanna rest in peace to disappear.”

Annabeth looks at him as she wipes her tears. “I wanna rest in peace so that I can reincarnate. So that I can hug you physically and talk to you without you lowering your voice.”

“Well,” she smiles. “What do you think will help you rest in peace?”

“I have an idea,” he responds, “maybe what you were gonna say before your last words?”

“Huh?”

“I think you hesitated on saying something before you left the last time you saw me.” Percy bites his tongue before it says _ Alive. _

“I forgot that.”

“Well then,” Percy slides down and rests his head on Annabeth’s pillow. “I’m just gonna stay here forever.”

Annabeth pushes him off her bed. “Then, as long as I’m alive,” She says above him. “You won’t be sleeping here.”

 

*

 

Annabeth is off to a dreamless sleep before she’s being shook by Percy, frantically and panicked.

“Wha-What?” Annabeth peers through her slightly opened eyes, her eyelashes are making her vision weird.

“My-My arm is disappearing!” Percy is talking like an engine that keeps on running. “It’s getting blurry and it’s fading. I think I did the undone task!”

“What is it?”

“I think it’s to make you cry, twice as I remembered.”

“Percy--”

“Annabeth,” he’s looking at her, with tears in his eyes. “I’m gonna get reincarnated.”

Annabeth feels her throat constrict, forming a lump and making her eyes well up. She wants him to rest in peace, as he wants that too, but she didn’t expect it to be on 3 am after she just started talking to him again. She expected the atmosphere to be less panicked.

_ Don’t leave yet. Not so fast. Don’t leave me alone! Don’t do that again! _

She wraps her arms around his shoulders, her voice broken down to barely coherent sobs. “I’ll get to see you again, I’ll get to hug you a little longer.” She whispers.

She feels his hand on the middle of her chest. She gasps and breaks a little more.

“I’m going to feel your heartbeat again, in another life. I won’t forget you, Annabeth.”

“Bye-bye, Percy.” Annabeth kisses his cheek. “I love you.”

Percy looks at her. He’s blurry and faded like an old photograph. The moonlight passes through him and he looks so breathtaking. Annabeth doesn’t want to let go. With a smile, he says, “Thank you.”

Nothing. Suddenly Annabeth is alone in her room once more, but this time, there’s a piece of paper in her hand.

 

**

 

_ Dear Annabeth Chase, _

_ If you’re reading this, I suppose I’ve rested in peace already and have gone with a proper goodbye.  _

_ Anyways,   _ **_I love you_ ** _ and I always wanted to say that. _

_ You’re the best, Wise Girl. _

_ Love, _

_ Percy _

 

_ ** _

 

_ I should be the one thanking you, Seaweed Brain. _


End file.
